Mario Story: Fruit Shake
Mario Story Fruit Shake is an RPG-platformer game in the Paper Mario series for the Nintendo Switch. While Nintendo is still publisher for the title, 1-UP Studios (formerly Brownie Brown) of Magical Starsign, Super Mario 3D Land and Mother 3 fame are the developers instead of Intelligent Systems. 'Gameplay' 'Overworld Gameplay' As in past Paper Mario games, Mario explores the overworld by Jumping, Hammering, and calling on his partners to get him past obstacles. Similar to the first two games, Fruit Shake’s overworld is interconnected, letting Mario and his party directly walk from one level to another. In fact, Mario Story Fruit Shake’s interconnectedness makes it feel more similar to Metroid than anything, as Mario will often go to locations before he’s finished the current chapter. Near the end of Chapter 1, Mario obtains an item allowing him to quickly teleport to any Save Block he’s walked by, even if he never actually hit it. Inspired by Wario Land: Shake It!, Mario can use the Fruit Shake ability as soon as he learns the move near the beginning of the quest. The Fruit Shake ability can loosen fruit, small enemies, and other objects from high above, as well as shake the ground greatly. Among other advantages, the Fruit Shake ability can stun enemies for a few seconds, allowing easy First Strikes. However, there are times where reckless Fruit Shake ability usage is unwise, such as hanging icicles spaced apart in certain ways, or soft floors over dangerous surfaces. During the adventure, Mario can accept quests from NPCs with icons over them. These quests take many forms, from minigames to fetch quests to clue solving, and other activities. By completing quests, Mario can earn Quest EXP and increase his Quest LV, increasing the maximum Fruit Tempo and audience in battle. Upon increasing Quest LV, Mario may also pick a guaranteed member of the audience from three choices. A little under a third of the quests are required, while many others are optional. Though quests can be replayed, their Quest EXP and item rewards are one-time only. 'Battle Gameplay' Like in the first two Paper Mario games (and the eighth gen games to a lesser extent), combat takes the form of turn-based battles. Mario and two partners battle against one or more enemies. During a single turn, Mario and his partners use one move each, followed by the enemies’ moves. Damage inflicted by enemies can be reduced by blocking. Blocking power begins at 2, and increases by 1 for every extra Battle LV and Quest LV Mario gains. This time, moves are instigated with fruit themed bottle caps called Fruit Caps. Mario can equip up to 9 extra Fruit Caps in battle, alongside 6 Basic ones. The rest are stored into a Cap Chest, which can hold 128 Fruit Caps. If Mario uses all his equipped Fruit Caps in battle, he must use the Wait command to restore his Caps next turn, at the cost of one move between Mario’s side. Every subsequent Wait command in a single battle, however, decreases the moves available in that period by 1. This maxes out at Wait #3, forcing Mario’s entire side to skip their turn. The Wait command can also be chosen ahead of time, in the event Mario doesn't hold a Fruit Cap he really wants or needs to use against a given enemy. Prior to battle, Mario can equip the Totems he finds for various effects. Equipping Totems requires Totem Slots, of which Mario starts with 2. For every 2 Quest Levels Mario gains, the number of slots increases by 1. If Mario equips two different Totems with the same kind of effect, however (such as changing the Jump attribute to a specific element), he only gets the effect of one of them at random. The audience returns. This time, they’re mostly more passive in their viewership, augmenting Mario in certain ways. Whenever Mario or his partners use a move, a Fruit Tempo meter fills up. Once the Fruit Tempo fills up, the audience becomes excited, increasing the Fruit earned by a certain amount per and depending on member. Squad Battles are introduced, inspired by the Chapter 4 boss of Paper Mario 64. Some of the weaker enemies may join together into a bigger Squad. The “tell” to when this happens is if the enemy is steaming red on the overworld. The stats and rewards of a Squad are higher than just fighting those enemies individually. Mario usually only fights 1 Squad in these battles, with the late game introducing the possibility of 2 Squads. By winning in battles, Mario receives Fruit in six different kinds- Apple, Orange, Banana, Melon, Blueberry and Grape. Fruit earned through combat also doubles as Battle EXP, which increases the max Heart Points (HP) of Mario and friends. 'Difficulty Levels' Before starting the game in one of three save files, players must decide the difficulty. QUICK TREK: Enemy HP and ATK are 0.6x the usual amount. Enemies give double the Fruit. All cutscenes are skipped. The first half of the first four chapters is played, with obstacles requiring items from future worlds already solved. The credits roll after defeating 4-4’s miniboss. NORMAL STORY: The normal experience. EPIC QUEST: Enemy HP and ATK are 1.3x the usual amount. The toughest EX dungeon will already be unlocked when that point is reached. 'Amiibo' The power of amiibo can grant Mario and friends extra perks they wouldn’t usually get. By scanning amiibo, special amiibo Fruit Caps and a plethora of little bonuses can be obtained. There are no Fruit Caps that only have amiibo variants, nor are there any healing or attack items exclusive to amiibo. The number of different amiibo that can be scanned per hour is 3. Meanwhile, the number of different amiibo that can be scanned per day is 5. In general, the following amiibo are compatible with Mario Story Fruit Shake: the Super Mario Bros. line, the Fire Emblem line, some oddball characters, and Super Smash Bros. variants of the above characters. For those amiibo series who are not directly compatible with Mario Story Fruit Shake (third party, Pokemon, other Nintendo franchises), 1 random Pie item is awarded. 'Story' 'Story Premise' What seems like another typical “rescue and escape with the Princess” for Mario and Luigi turns into another epic caper when they, Toadette, Boom Boom and Pom Pom are shot in their airship by the Genes Nuvola Fleet and their master, Re Fenice. When Mario awakens, he finds himself in the tropical Frutta Archipelago, and witnesses Genes Nuvola try to attack the region’s six Great Fruit Trees. Now, Mario must gather a team of partners, old and new, to find his missing friends, save the Great Fruit Trees, and defeat Genes Nuvola! But he’s got to watch out for Re Fenice’s minions, as well as Boom Boom and Pom Pom. And who knows what other forces ruminate in the Frutta Archipelago…? 'Script' Unlike the first three Paper Mario games, Mario Story Fruit Shake only has a prologue and 5 chapters spread across a main town stage and 5 settings. In exchange, Fruit Shake''s chapters are slightly longer than usual, with more stages per setting. There is also an extensive EX dungeon available near the end of the game. ''Click here for the script. 'Characters' 'Main Characters' 'Partners' Many other partners are available to Mario during this quest… 'NPC species' Most of the friendly species Mario and friends meet or know during Fruit Shake. While they come in many names, shapes, clothes, genders, ages and sizes, the insane individuals Mario comes across often fit into these species. 'Villains and Enemies' 'Enemies and Bosses' (WIP, requires separate page, not enough text for separate page ATM) 'Items and Abilities' 'Fruit Caps' ' ' Fruit Caps come in many variants. Click here for in-depth Fruit Cap data. 'Totems' ' '''Mysterious wooden statues, Mario can find Totems strewn across the Frutta Archipelago. The people portrayed upon the Totems bear a striking resemblance to individuals from and beyond the Mushroom World. Using Totems, Mario can access all sorts of helpful effects. ''Click here for Totem effects. 'Items' Like any RPG, Mario eventually needs to reach into his pocket in times of extreme danger. Mario can find items in the overworld, or buy them at an Item Shop. At the beginning of the game, Mario has 6 slots for items. For every Great Fruit Tree he restores, he gains 4 more slots. Up to 64 extra items can be stashed away at shops. Click here for Items. 'Continuity' Mario Story Fruit Shake takes place in the same timeline as previous Paper Mario games. Alongside the original trilogy, Fruit Shake also considers two unreleased games- Relic Hunter and Wonder Journey- as canon, with in-universe explanations as to why no-one talks about those stories in the Mushroom World. Mario Story Fruit Shake takes place two years after both the original and Recut version of the Wii U game in the Paper Mario series. The decision for the time skip was to allow many other Mario games to take place, and logically invite a larger amount of material to work with. In practice, though, since Fruit Shake began development alongside many other Mario games, and to give Super Mario Odyssey time to grow on people, not many references are made to that game. 'Development' Despite the relative success of the Recuts for the 3DS games and Wii U game in the Paper Mario series, a cloud hung over the Recut teams’ heads regarding them trying to salvage such flawed games. Near the end of development for the Wii U Recut, it became clear that as long as Nintendo and Intelligent Systems kept making excuses for the eighth gen games in their original forms, the Paper Mario series would not fully heal. To help ensure a fresher start, development of the next Paper Mario game was handed from Intelligent Systems to 1-Up Studios, experienced with a few RPGs. Assisting them were many veterans from the original two Paper Mario games, as well as a very small handful of staff from the eighth gen games. Notably, Kensuke Tanabe, Risa Tabata and Taro Kudo, figures involved with the eighth gen games, were not among the returning eighth gen staff, due to priorities with Metroid Prime 4. It was decided that, save a very small handful of vague references that majorly retcon certain details of both versions, nothing in the final releases of the eighth gen games’ original versions would be mentioned or namedropped. This even extended to the Totems chosen, as Recut characters could only show up if they had no counterpart in the original version. The decision further led to a mandate to only refer to those games as Recut 1 and Recut 2, rather than the original games' actual names. In addition, regardless of the many paper jokes and comments removed in the Recutting process, the developers at 1-Up Studios still felt the Paper was taking too much focus away from other important venues, often in a detrimental manner. To that end, the “Paper Mario” series title was dropped for this installment, and replaced with a title that would show the team would be taking things back to their roots, as well as much more seriously. Now, 1-Up Studios could focus on the subtle charm of 2D sprites in a 3D world, instead of forcing the aesthetic when it wasn’t needed. While Shigeru Miyamoto warned Yoshiaki Koizumi not to concern himself with continuity too much and focus on gameplay, he did understand why this measure was taken, as he admittedly had misgivings of the eighth gen games in their original forms, too. Miyamoto’s acceptance of these measures further led to drastically decreasing the Toads’ role in Fruit Shake, with only Toadette in the main story and an in-story explanation why they aren’t present. 'Gallery' 'Main Characters' Mario (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Mario, hero of the Mushroom Kingdom. Luigi sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Luigi, Mario's cocky brother. Peach sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Peach, fair princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. Toadette sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Toadette, brave explorer and inventor, as well as a friend to Princess Peach and the Mario Bros. Boom Boom sprites (Paper Mario Fruit Shake).png|Boom Boom, Bowser's recurring miniboss minion from the old days. Pom Pom sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Pom Pom, a new miniboss minion of Bowser's and close knit with Boom Boom. Adam sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Adam, a curious bookworm who always wanted to explore the Frutta Archipelago beyond the central city. Forte sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Forte, a Noki conchplayer missing "something" in her practice. Lupule sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Lupule, an easily distracted Brolder who can rev up hard, but just can't focus long enough to complete her task. Lupule page 2 (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|More of Lupule the easily distracted Brolder (or Sisdor...?). Admiral Bobbery sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Admiral Bobbery, a posh Bob-omb sailor Mario met in Rogueport years ago. Great Fruit Trees.png|The Great Fruit Trees. For three thousand years, Appelkor, Citridus, Manni, Elonaire, Blulala and Gilberto have nurtured the Frutta Archipelago. Re Fenice sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Re Fenice, the ambitious yet destructive leader of Genes Nuvola. Re Fenice PARTS.png|Separate parts for Re Fenice, Genes Nuvola's leader. Blubawks sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Blubawks, the hyper devoted number two in Genes Nuvola. Conchlia sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Conchlia, the egotistical sea commander of Genes Nuvola. Spettro sprites (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Spettro, a mysterious shadowy Doogan personally recruited by Re Fenice for Genes Nuvola. Ari Sworda (Paper Mario Fruit Shake).png|Ari Sworda, a jovial contractor hired by Re Fenice to gather energy from one of the Great Fruit Trees in exchange for lots of cash. Ari Sworda PAGE 2 (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|More of Ari Sworda, the jovial contractor. Ari Sworda PAGE 3 (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Even more of Ari Sworda, the Bandit-Pionpi contractor. Ari Sworda with Sword (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|"It's a bird!" "It's a plane!" No, dear people- it's even more of Ari Sworda! Ari Sworda PARTS.png|Ari Sworda, in bits and pieces. 'Friendly NPCs' Merlon (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Merlon, a tropical witch doctor possessing the magic to rank up Mario's partners. He is one of many with the name. Orera (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Orera, a nice girl who is also the orange of Adam's eye. Beakhov (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Beakhov, acclaimed theatre director with the mantra "All the world's a stage". Suuka (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Suuka, a chatty Fruuta apple in charge of selling yummy Tarts, battle items and turnips. Cartone (Paper Mario Fruit Shake).png|Cartone, the hands-off seller of blue Fruit Caps. Don Grath (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Don Grath, a calculating mafia boss hiding in Frutta Citta. Talop (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Talop, an energetic boy who can't keep his hands on his stuff. Kyorsha (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Kyorsha, the busy-busy-busy cheftainess of the Frutta Archipelago's Yoshi Village. Kyoshid (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Kyoshid, troublemaking son of Kyorsha. Kyoshid's irresponsibility has strained his relationship with his mom, yet he doesn't understand why. Delirhuff (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Delirhuff, a fashionable Doogan out with her family for a camping trip. Mawley (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Mawley, a tomboy excited for extreme challenges. Muttigan (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Muttigan, a rugged athletic dog knowledgable of when to take it slow. Joroo (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Joroo, an old friend of Muttigan's. Billik (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Billik, a rowdy ruff boy taking after his sister and dad closely. Hirk (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Hirk, the braggy yet responsible Vellbex park ranger. He forgets the latter when it comes to his sister, though. Hara (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Hara, a hands-off and detached Vellbex park ranger. The only thing that gives her life- competing with her brother. Urzzi (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Urrzi, a Grizzeti always invested in saving the innocent and fighting ne'er-o-wells. Unfortunately, he ends up causing more damage than any baddy could in his crusades. Urzzi PARTS.png|The split-up parts of Urrzi. Mazadre (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Mazadre, an elderly Grizzeti cheftainess knowledgeable in both legends and locals. As mazadre knows well, just because one can't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. Triple Bananas (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|The Triple Bananas, three bodysurfing plantains out for some juicy babes. There's the cool Wavetastic YF, powerhouse Delicate Jeffrey, and the quiet Slippery Slick. Bukke (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Bukke, the on-duty yet relaxed lifeguard of Basso Beach. Fone (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Fone, the lethargic yet snippy receptionist of Snoozeberry Bedside. Siidney (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Siidney, the Yoshi fangirl and a friend of Kyoshid. Robapero (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Robapero, a gruff actor currently working for Don Grath so he can understand how a gangster thinks. Sparakan (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Sparakan, a noncomformist balloon seller with better things to do than sell rubber helium. Talonmor (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Talonmor, a promising young visionary. She has a bright future ahead, but she should still tone down the light. Wetty (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Wetty, a famous blues singer. Despite setback after setback, his optimism stays strong. Platain (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Platain, a super chill street musician. Afrozze (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Afrozze, a fisherman who never keeps what he catches due to ancient beliefs on sealife. Ruffica (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Ruffica, responsible seller of red Fruit Caps. Citravis (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Citravis, a blooming researcher of the Yoshi lifestyle and their relationship with the Great Fruit Trees. As a result, he's friends with Siidney. Ollaindor (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Ollainder, bossy wife and mom currently staying at Snoozeberry Bedside. Pulicco (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Pulicco, a Grape Frutta tragically working as a janitor at Snoozeberry Inn. Flahira (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Flahira, ambitious friend of Kyoshid. Once she sees what she wants, she'll stop at nothing to get it. Shila (Mario Story Fruit Shake).PNG|Shila, resolute defender of Yoshi Village. She lost her saddle in one battle years ago. Groshi (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Groshi, seller of middle-range healing and combat items. Trombo (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Trombo, the somewhat easy going seller of yellow Fruit Caps. Arpamour (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Arpamour, housemaid and one of Snoozeberry Bedside's two owners. She's also Fone's mom. Rynder (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Rynder, the supportive yet busy dad of Talop. Big Melona (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Big Melona, the muscle of Don Grath's operation. Don't disrespect the grapefather, or Melona will reduce you to a watermelon rind. The Leaf (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|The Leaf, eyes for Don Grath. With his "paychecks", The Leaf can take care of his eponymous moustache. Somma (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Somma, the frail nobleberry living among the Grizzeti. Swironica (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Swironica, a rich cologne tycoon for whom money brings happiness. She hangs out with Nerretty and Berryhl. 'Enemies' 'Bosses' 'Locations' Fruit Shake- Bowser's Castle.jpg|Bowser's Castle, usually where Mario's journey ends. Fruit Shake's story begins at Bowser's Castle, a move seen only in Super Paper Mario and Bowser Jr.'s Journey.. Palazzo Nuvola (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Palazzo Nuvola, the main airship for Genes Nuvola. See that teeny tiny speck to the right of the second flag and in front of the top palace? That's Mario. Goccia Collo and Burasca Veloce (Mario Story Fruit Shake).png|Smaller yet no less dangerous ships in Genes Nuvola's fleet. Fruit Shake- Koopa Clan Airship.jpg|The Koopa Clan airship, the standard air vehicle of Bowser's forces. This is the latest, improved mark of the battle brig. Category:Paper Mario (series) Category:Paper Mario Games Category:Paper Mario Category:Mario Story Fruit Shake